The Fall of America, Inc.

This article reads like a college term paper written last minute after an all night party and reading a few articles o Wikipedia. It accidentlally hits a few points correctly, but tosses out weird opinions masquearding as "facts" with no back up.
1 - The world is turning to the Chinese and Russian models more and more? Who exactly? What color is the sky in your world?
2 - Collateralized Debt Obligations are not the cause of the credit freeze. It wasn't innovative financial products that caused trouble - it was the ratings agencies - Moody's etc, who rated the riskiest tranches of CDO's from zero-down liar loans as AAA, as secure as US Treasuries, that did it.
3 - Why bother. This is what Newsweek has become as its revenues dry up - a bundle of hackneyed articles spewing Democratic talking points, feverishly piled on by the Obamabots in the comments section. Enjoy your echo chamber. Is Jonathan Alter going to make me go to Obama Re-education Camp next January?

nowforthelies- go read Bartels' study - he's the Princeton economist who did a long-term study of presidential terms and discovered what, duh, people already knew - over a 50 YEAR PERIOD, and accounting for the b.s. that democrats inherit the great republican economy, Democrats are BETTER for EVERYONE in the U.S., economically - except for the top 5% of the wealth in this nation. That is the republican base.

They string along the religious right with the social issues that are also outside of the majority opinion in the U.S. The people of the U.S. want affordable health care. They want abortion to be a private issue between a woman, her doctor and her family and they think that the restrictions that Roe v. Wade set by trimester is just. If someone believes a foetal egg sac has the same rights as a human, then that person has every right to think so but NO right to force that extremist view on others. Americans want privacy. Bush wouldn't even meet with the anti-choice people when they were standing outside the White House. it's always been a carrot for the religious intolerants that Republicans dangle before them. Would a supreme court really overturn Roe v Wade and create the chaos of state by state abortion laws? I suppose a sharia court might.

Leave us alone. Get out of our bedrooms and off our telephones with this FISA b.s. (which, really, is obviously a means for political blackmail.) Americans want VALID elections and this can only be done at this point by paper ballot. Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004 are travesties of democracy. The majority of Americans NEVER wanted Bush as president.

We want taxes that go toward infrastructure so that we can drive across bridges with confidence, and know that our relatives who may be in the middle of some natural disaster are not left to die while the president plays guitar. We want schools that educate. The creationists should just find a bunker somewhere because you make the U.S. the laughing stock of the western world. We're technologically and scientifically innovative IN SPITE OF YOU.

The American government has failed the American people. Utterly failed.

Torture is still a crime, no matter what b.s. Cheney makes up. He, Bush, Rumsfeld, Feith, Addington, Gonzales, - these men should be in jail awaiting trial for crimes against humanity. Our longest-standing ally, Great Britain, sent an "envoy" (Phillipe Sands) to urge our nation to do the right thing or face yet further disgrace and fall from power that comes by the example you set, not the b.s. that comes out of your mouth.

I am so tired of republicans. I do wish all of you would implode. Your mindless greed and psycopathic need to justify your nastyness gives me the creeps.

I don't know which of his talking points is more stupid. We have never had a welfare state like the welfare state we have now for the wall street boys with their bonus and bail outs. I find it remarkable that Republicans go into fits over giving a poor single mother three or four hundred dollars a month and a block of cheese but get right in there if a fee is to be generated by palming off toxic mortgages on speculators knowing the






damnthing is a ponzi scheme

This is ignorance beyond ignorance. This just didn't start with one Presidency but many many before and..."After" yes Reagan. The name of the game was greed and we should have all seen this one coming. Oh, yes! There were so many clues to what was going on. People buying homes that could NOT afford them. People buying more than one house at a time. You can't tell me that everyone didn't ask themselves HAY WHATS GOING ON HERE?!? If I can't afford a house how can this guy? This guy who hasn't got a REAL job, he doesn't even have credit but his own word!!!......Afford a house worth over $500,000. Where is the logic here? Are these questions we ask going on deft ears? I am not so sure. The only answer I can give is pure greed!!! You greedy..greedy bankers! I have to say even they couldn't pull this one off without a few politicians in their pockets! Ask yourselves this also....Where are the indictments? So far I haven't hurd of even one major banker or investment firm biting the bullet for this one. Wake up Newsweek!

Restoring faith in our brand? Restoring American influence on the global stage? When are we as a nation going to become a bit more chaste in our feeling of self-importance? America does not hold a monopoly on ideas or ideals, and even if we did, recent events suggest that we may not be right.

The recent bailouts, which would be called "nationalization" in other countries, demonstrate the flaws of a too pure capitalist system. The disastrous re-election of George W., and the mindless selection of an anti-intellectual, populist to run for VP, is an indication that our version of "democracy" may not work in a dumbed-down society (as portrayed in the movie "Idiocracy").

Instead of being pre-occupied with trying to tell other countries how they should live or govern themselves, (only parents of minor children get to say: "Do as I say, not as I do."), perhaps America should first get its own house in order. Our experiment with democracy and capitalism is hardly at a happy and perfect end, and for many countries, not necessarily the one to emulate. We have a crumbling infrastructure, dirty energy policy, a gluttonous appetite for debt, an educational system that consistently ranks low, and social services (such as health care) that are failing a growing minority of Americans.

So let's cut the nonsense about brands and peddling influence on the world stage. America can and should lead by example, and not by invading other countries and imposing our not so perfect values on others.

*
SAVE AMERICA
OPEN THE DOORS
AMERICA IS A COUNTRY OF IMMIGRANTS
IMMIGRANTS WILL SAVE AMERICA
GIVE CITIZENSHIP FOR EVERYBODY WHO BUY A HOUSE BY CASH

to understand what is really going on, watch the recently released free informational documentary on the current monetary crisis:

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=zeitgeist+addendum&hl=en&emb=0&aq=0&oq=zeitgeist+ad#

it is incredibly illuminating.

to understand what is really going on, I highly recommend to everyone the recently released free informational documentary on the current monetary crisis http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=zeitgeist+addendum&hl=en&emb=0&aq=0&oq=zeitgeist+ad# it is incredibly illuminating.

It is not the American brand that is damaged. It is the REPUBLICAN brand. Reaganomics tore down that Wall Street. Regulation serves to protect taxpayers from the crony crooks who populate both Wall Street and Oval Office.

It's time for a change. It's impossible to have affordable health care but Wall Street banks who rewarded their employees with BILLIONS in just one year walk away from the steaming pile of mbs's they created - while the bill for their party on our dime is, more honestly, going to run into the trillions.

George Bush's legacy is that his administration and his Republican Congress did more damage to the U.S. political and economic system than any foreign power could ever hope. If yet again, as with Iran-Contra and the S&L crisis, Republicans walk away from this without prison terms, then it is obvious to ANYONE with half a brain that this is no longer a democracy.

Anyone who is still planning to vote for Mctheusela and Caribou Barbie (with winking action!) is an idiot.

to understand what is really going on, I highly recommend to everyone the recently released free informational documentary on the current monetary crisis http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=zeitgeist+addendum&hl=en&emb=0&aq=0&oq=zeitgeist+ad# it is incredibly illuminating.

No. It's not the "American" brand that is discredited. It's the REPUBLICAN brand. Mr. Reagan, you tore down that Wall Street. As Merkel noted, those nations that were wise enough to protect citizens against predatory crony capitalists are in the best positions at this time. Trickle-down economics was a joke all along. The shame is that the American media continued, and continues to hype it. Millions of Americans look at the bail out of predatory lenders and say... so, if you are irresponsible, if you are greedy scum - you get bailed out by your cronies - Bush and Congress. But if you see affordable health care as a government priority to insure the general well being and to create a better future for all Americans... there is no money. Ever.

We see this and we see that Republicanism and corporate Democratic lap doggishness are what's wrong with this nation. It's time for a change. Obama is a centrist, no matter what the neaderthal right wing tries to say. I hope he will buck the system and do something for the people of this nation, not the corporations.

Obama is totally incompetent you say? Then how do you rationalize his nurturing and managing the most consistent, disciplined and accomplished campaign in a generation - and one that is certainly more successful than any challenger he has faced in this election cycle?

Obama is totally incompetent you say? Then how do you rationalize his nurturing and managing the most consistent, disciplined and accomplished campaign in a generation - and one that is certainly more successful than any challenger he has faced in this election cycle?

Many in the world and in this country are of the opinion Americas days as the preeminent Superpower are numbered if not already passed,
Its clear Obama and Biden are very much aware of this, we can certainly hope they can turn it around, it's not going to be easy.

It's hard to fathom the "What me Worry" President could actually bring the United States of America to its knees, significant economic damage was predictable but this?

I only have one comment about the article. The 1 trillion did not vanish nor will the second trillion in the bail out, or the trillion plus for the war in Iraq, money doesn't vanish it just moves to a different pocket.

Bravo for raising the disasterous decline of American 'soft power.' It's real, and we had buckets of it while Clinton was in office, when he was hammering out the Good Friday accords in Ireland, endlessly wrestling with the Palestinian conundrum, protecting Bosnia and Kosovo, etc. etc. etc. Hard to remember back that far, but the U.S. was relatively popular in the world. That popularity is now in shreds, and it will take a lot of work to get it back - extremely important and urgent work, for many reasons.
It cannot be discussed, especially by the candidates themselves or their campaigns, but Obama's race gives him a significant leg up in the task of restoring America's place in the world. Americans don't usually stop to think about it, but most of the world's population is not white, it's some shade of brown, and as a person of color, Obama as president would not only signify a staggering leap forward in this nation's politics, but would also present a new American face to the world, a face the rest of the world would recognize and appreciate. It's hard to overstate what that would do, instantly, for this country's place in hearts and minds the world over.
All the political baloney aside, I think a President McCain, freed of the campaign silly season, would also work hard to regain America's image, and would, in time, have some success. I just think that he'd be flying into a stiffer global headwind than Obama.